It's been six years since Jordan Jaffares released his first record with his band Snowden, but they haven't been idle years. He made the time count.

In 2006, Anti-Anti's indie-electronic shoegaze felt very much of its time. And though Jaffares hails from the South, Pitchfork pointed out that the record felt like New York. But the upcoming No One in Control, due out May 14, probably won't feel so rooted in a time or place.

In the last six years, Jaffares has been consistently working on the music, all while touring and relocating from Atlanta, to Chicago, to Brooklyn, and then Austin, Texas.

"Movement is unfortunately essential for my writing. It's very hard for me to create in a vacuum," Jaffares said. "Movement is just the easiest way to introduce flux and to get my mind stirring."

For someone who's working on complexly crafted songs, the change of scenery can work as a substitute for more human influence and opinions. Next time, Jaffares said, he might try to work with at least one other person. Some of the material is already in the works -- leftovers that didn't make No One in Control.

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What will be on this record will be more subdued and ambient, it seems. Of the first two singles, "The Beat Comes" and "Keep Quiet," well, it's not hard to guess which one better represents the new tone.

"This record is different in the fact that I'm not writing worrying about trying to keep strangers' attention in a room anymore. So, I can be a lot more ethereal and ambient in the songwriting because you don't have to keep heel-stomping. I can write a record that I like," Jaffares said.

Still, there was a need to improve on the second album, which meant taking six years to get it just right.

"[The time] allowed a dangerous amount of revising," Jaffares said. "I think it came out well -- really a ton of material, which will make it a lot easier for the next record to come out. Somebody in my position, I can't afford to put out a record that is anything less than twice as good as the last record. Sometimes it takes time to write that."

The biography information for Jaffares, Snowden and No On in Control compares the music to Bon Iver, but says it's "decidedly boots-on-ground urban compared to Justin Vernon's ear-muffed pastoralism." Jaffares didn't know the bio said that, but it turns out to be very accurate.

"I've probably listened to that record 100 times in a year. I think it's one of the most amazing and impressive things that I will ever hear," he said. "I'm sure that crept into the record."

With a much more mellow record to tour with, Snowden is headed out on a 10-stop "warm-up" tour, which includes a night at the Larimer Lounge on Feb. 26. Jaffares is working with a new band and wants to give the material a test run.

"Part of it is that there are things that get done on stage that I have to adapt. There are things that come off of the record that are too subdued live. The live format is a different animal. [And] I'm playing with different guys right now," he said.

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